Skip to main content

Hackneyed Endorsements

The Seattle Medium, which purports to be the paper of Seattle's "African-American" (a term never used by the Party of Commons; see this link on "Ancestry and Politics") community, has never once invited me to a boardroom for an interview, or even called me on the telephone, during my eight years in politics in Washington, and yet they pronounce endorsements of candidates for various races without so much as a one sentence explanation for their choices.  When I ran for King County Council in 2009, they chose Republican Reagan Dunn instead of me and another candidate, but in this year's endorsements for state attorney general they said, in so many words, that Dunn showed no interest in the community that they mostly address (ditto for Dunn's main rival according to the Medium). 

Now, in another of their endorsements this year, they are endorsing Brad Owen for Lt. Governor (they can't even spell his name correctly) without an iota of a reason why.  Brad Owen is a "Blue Dog" Democrat who would have little in common with addressing issues important to the Medium's primary readership, such as jobs in Seattle and college education costs.  Owen was even sued by Lisa Brown, Majority Leader of the State Senate, and a true Democrat, for Owen's hostility to progressive and constitutional ideas.

These are not the only small and big paper endorsers of candidates, of course.  Any group of 3 or 4 can sit around in an office, drink coffee, and make a list of their favorite candidates on a piece of paper.  Just because they work for a "newspaper," and we use that word liberally in a lot of instances, doesn't give their opinion any more weight than any 3 or 4 citizens' opinions, generally.  The moral of this story: don't give your vote away to so-called newspaper editorialists who more often than not worship the status quo.

by Mark Greene, Candidate for Lieutenant Governor

[revised on 4/29/13]

Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2007 Primary for City Council

Party of Commons' chairman, Mark Greene, has been active in both local and national affairs. In 2007, he ran for City Council in Newcastle, and proposed that the city try to attract sustainable energy businesses to locate inside it, among other campaign ideas. Please, see the Seattle Times article in the comments section about the primary that year. The Party of Commons does not sponsor or produce advertising. Copyright 2009 - 2010, Party of Commons TM
2 comments
Read more

County Executive Election Conundrum

No telling who is going to be in the Nov. 3rd general election with Susan Hutchison for county executive. Hutchison & Reagan Dunn (the Hutchison slate), and Mark Greene are the three most likely King County government candidates (in contested elections) to come out of the primary, but whoever the 4th candidate will be is a puzzle. We believe Dow Constantine made a strategic error by making too big of a deal of contrasting himself with Hutchison on social issues that have nothing to do with county government. Fred Jarrett and Ross Hunter are average politicians, but their drawbacks, besides being average, are a little eyebrow raising. Larry Phillips looks like the best of the lot most likely to make it into the "top two." Alan Lobdell is a capable individual for the post of county executive, although through no fault of his own, he is not getting much press attention. Lippmann and Nelson should try for lower positions, such as boards or councils, before putting their hat...
1 comment
Read more

One Hard Test: Finding Smith's Congressional Accomplishments

While I am campaigning, several people tell me they are supporting Adam Smith for Congress no matter what.  However, when I ask them to name some accomplishment by Smith that helped to garner their support, I usually get frowns as if I was giving them some kind of hard test.  About the closest thing I've heard from someone to answer this question was that he's good on technology, but that was it, just a general vague sense that he is doing something right with technology -- perhaps giving the go-ahead for Uncle Sam to assist a country, with American nuclear energy technology, that has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as if that were "good."  Smith, as a de facto member of the Democratic Party's corporate "Blue Dog" wing in Congress, is part and parcel of the "This Town" (a new book by Mark Leibovich) crowd in Washington, D.C.  We recommend this book to anybody who wants ...
Post a Comment
Read more